First Drive: 2009 Chevrolet Cruze

The Chevrolet Cruze has different jobs wherever it's sold. In the U.S., where it goes on sale mid-2010, it will be a locally made rival to the Honda Civic and Toyota Corolla. But in Europe, where we've just driven it, it's GM's Korean-made budget-brand entry and sits beneath the same-size Opel (and sometime Saturn) Astra in GM's price and brand hierarchy.

GM's been promising Americans an "import fighter" small car for years--and has consistently failed to deliver, whether it be with homegrown products like the Cobalt or with rebadged Opels like the Astra. So here's the key question: If the Cruze is positioned as a bargain car in Europe, does it really have the quality and style, the functionality and value, to seriously rival Honda and Toyota in America?

Out on the road, the Cruze catches the daylight respectably. The stance is strong, the wheels pushed out wide in their housings. There are a well-defined shoulderline, a simple but assertive dual-port nose, and a rear view that has a surprising hint of BMW
5 Series about it. It's a more interesting shape than the Corolla, for sure.

Inside, the three-port instrument binnacle sits beneath a flying visor, the center console is well organized and nicely garnished, and a swath of modern rucksack-type cloth runs across the dash and doors. It's reasonably fresh and nicely executed. Come dusk, the dials light up crisply in Chevy's ice blue, with red pointers.

Roominess has been carefully benchmarked: Out back, you get plenty of head and knee space. In front, the seats support well and adjust through a wide range. This feels like a compact car built for the American human.

Germany's Opel was responsible for the basic platform, GM's new new-generation Delta architecture. Notable features include a high-rigidity shell and relatively sophisticated front-strut geometry outfitted with hydraulic bushes and aluminum lower arms. You can certainly feel the solidity of the body as it traverses rough surfaces with nary a shake and less audible clang than in most of the Japanese rivals, this despite the reasonably firm spring settings in the European-spec version.

The firmish springs make the ride a bit lively over rough roads, but the damping is well judged provided you limit your speed. Which you probably will.

Why? For a start, the engines discourage active driving (we'll come to that), but so does the steering. It's reasonably accurate, but it's low geared and features an artificially strong self-centering action. This might help keep dozy drivers on track on the highway, but it entirely masks steering feel or driver involvement through what would be interesting curves. We did push the Cruze a bit -- solely in the interests of journalistic discovery, you understand -- and found a car that rolls little and handles tidily, before eventually surrendering to understeer.

The Cruze's engines are all four-cylinders, with five-speed manual or six-speed auto transmissions. By far the best Euro-unit is the 2.0-liter diesel, as is often the way in cars sold on the Continent. It's reasonably peaceful and full of torque. However, Chevy is demanding a substantial price premium for the engine (about $2000 over the equivalent gas motor), and in a budget car that's a lot to ask.

The gas engines are naturally aspirated and come in 1.6 and 1.8 liter DOHC variants. One sample of the 1.8 was unacceptably harsh -- far more so than the 1.6 -- so we requested a substitute and found it a match in refinement terms for the 1.6. Not that this is any great citation. Both engines, while reasonably smooth, have a dull drone to them, and have flat spots and seem unwilling to rev even to their modest redlines.

And they don't deliver much performance or much feel of it. If you load up the 1.6 with five passengers and their bags, any uphill passing maneuvers will be a stern test of nerves and patience. What's needed is a unit with diesel-like torque but free-spinning gas engine refinement. And with any luck, it's coming: In the U.S.-market Cruze, the engine will be a downsized 1.4-liter gas turbo with direct-injection estimated at 140 horsepower. We await it keenly, especially as GM is promising city gas mileage in the high 30-mpg range.

The Delta platform, of course, is projected for a giant array of powertrain technologies. We hear a Voltec plug-in hybrid version is in the works. Compared with the original Volt itself, a Voltec Cruze would suffer in the aerodynamic stakes and so the economy numbers would be worse, but the sticker price should be lower and accommodation better.

As for body styles, the European lineup will include a hatchback model. No word on whether that will come with the sedan to the U.S. Also in the works is a closely related seven-seat compact minivan, accurately previewed at the 2009 Detroit auto show as the Chevy Orlando concept.

As of now, a lot of things could happen between this first drive of a Korean-built, European-market Cruze and the U.S.-built, U.S.-market edition. But we now know several positive things. The design is strong, the interior habitable and nicely furnished. The bodyshell is rigid and will crash safely. The suspension and steering will be retuned to U.S. tastes (which probably won't suit the average MT enthusiast).

Is the Cruze good enough to take the fight to Honda and Toyota here in America? Right now, GM can hardly see beyond the end of the week, let alone next year, but assuming the corporation survives, the basic soundness of the Cruze is beyond doubt. The performance, refinement, and fuel efficiency of the 1.4-liter turbo engine is key to the Cruze's "import-fighter" credentials, however. If that engine is not substantially more energetic and responsive than the 1.6 and 1.8-liter gas powerplants in the European Cruze, then GM will have failed us. Again.